Sunday, January 20, 2019

This is the last car that I got for and with my late husband. I thought the price of this car was through the roof and strangely that day when I came home something else went through the roof (of the garage of our home in Plant City). I had gone up in the attic to get the artificial Christmas tree down. Usually my husband would do this. Unfortunately I stepped the wrong place and my leg went through the ceiling. I blogged about it HERE.

As you may recall, my husband died June 2014 from mixed dementia in Plant City, Florida. In June of 2015 I moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where I have family. My great family here loan cars to one another when there is car trouble. In my case they also drive me at night now because I need cataract eye surgery. People in my church here give me rides to night-time events. During Christmas break when I did not substitute teach I put my car in for more diagnostic work.

This diagnosis went on for quite a while earlier in the fall. My GMC would work and then the car would make a noise. I put it in for diagnosis when I didn't need a car. My wonderful brother loaned me his car so I could work during the first week of January when school resumed and I could substitute teach again. I knew that I had to get a used car and not keep borrowing my brother's car while he drove his wife's car.

The first Saturday in January my friend Sherry who was also searching for a new car and I set off for CarMax. We met a wonderful saleslady, Le-George. She introduced me to the Buick Encore. She has another job, but would be back Thursday night and this selected car was held until then.

Now I am not driving at night because I am due for cataract surgery January 23 and 30. So the plan was I would enlist my brother to drive the car I was trading in to get to CarMax at 6 pm January 10.

Thursdays I do not work because I spend time with my friend Virginia, soon to be 100 years of age. We have a ladies Bible study at church in the morning and then go to lunch. I left the lunch in my brother's car to pick up my brother and take him to his bridge game. I went home to gather my financial papers for the trade-in and possible sale that night.

Suddenly I got a call from my brother asking me to pick up his daughter (my niece) and her kids and take her for medical attention since his wife couldn't be reached on her phone. I did that and brought the kids to the other grandmother. Hurriedly I gathered up papers. Then about 4 pm I left my brother's car at my apartment and drove my GMC to pick up my brother at his bridge game. I worried that it wouldn't make it to CarMax. We stopped for dinner and wonderfully we did make it to CarMax. We made a deal--$3000 for my car and car payments for the Buick Encore.

My brother drove the Buick to my apartment and then drove his own car I had been driving home. It's good he doesn't have to drive his wife's car now. What a kind family I have here!

Update: mice are gone from my apartment now. (See last post.)

Post to follow: this senior citizen/widow gets cataract eye surgery and a driving test so in February she can drive at night.

Thursday, October 11, 2018

My friend Connie and her dog Donner accompanied my dog Ziggy and me on an Alzheimer's Association Walk last month. We received scarves for our dogs there and Ziggy proudly wore his scarf on the walk. Donner's neck was too small for him to wear his, but Connie took that scarf home.

Now Connie and her husband Gary had two other dogs given to them recently--Brody and Midnight. It was doggie chaos when I visited them! Brody kept running away, jumping over the fence in their back yard and the last time Brody ran away he was wearing an Alzheimer's Association scarf.

With surgery coming up for both Connie and Gary, they knew that they could keep only their original small calm dog Donner--not the two other dogs which caused so much havoc in the home.

Neither Connie nor Gary were currently driving and so I took my friend Connie and Midnight to Huntsville Animal Services. I made the case for their taking Midnight, and incidentally mentioned that there was another dog named Brody who had run away from their property. They were happy to take Midnight, although it made Connie tearful to give him up.

The next day I got an email from an Alzheimer's Association office here in Alabama.

Are you missing a dog named Brody?

He was found in South Huntsvile about two weeks ago and taken to Animal Care Cinic. Brody had an incorrect address and incomplete name on chip so they've been unable to connect him with his owner. He was found with an Alzheimer's Association awareness walk bandanna so hopefully he joined our walk on September 29th and we can help with the reunion. If you know Brody please get in touch with Huntsville Animal Services.

What a coincidence! The two robust dog buddies were there! I let the Alzheimer's Association know that Brody was not my dog, but I did know about him. I drove to Connie and Gary's house and got Brody's paper work. When I brought that paperwork to Huntsville Animal Services, I found out the good news that Brody had been adopted and that most likely Midnight, not yet one years of age, would be also.

So this is the story of how that Alzheimer's Association walk led to both dogs being adopted.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

We celebrated after church on Sunday at Grandmother's House Restaurant.

The seniors at church gother a special cushion for her wheel chair.

She has a great sense of humor. The birthday card I got her says that all our friends are jealous of how we look at our ages; that card opens and you hear music--perfect for her good hearing. She laughs at this. Together we get along. I tell her I don't hear well (I have hearing aids) and she doesn't see well. We make one person. We have both buried two husbands and have learned a lot about each other.

Virginia visited by
Choir Director Bess.

She sang in the choir for 60 years and when I visit her, we choose a hymn she knows by heart for the weekly Praise and Prayer Meeting held at the residence where she lives. She used to cook dinner at her home for the Praise and Prayer Meeting. That whole prayer meeting moved to Huntsville Health and Rehab Center when she had to move there!

She is a proper lady. She regularly gets out with a driver for her car. She goes to a church Bible study and Sunday services. She gets her hair and nails done. December of 2015 when I first moved to Huntsville, we went to the Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist. She stood for the Hallelujah Chorus pulling herself up with the bench in front of her.

Through her I have learned to love old hymns and value taking time to pray for one another. We adopted each other.

Happy Birthday, Virginia!

I want to be like you when I am 99.

* How would the LORD get me to my church's prayer meeting? I broke my two feet and ended up there for three weeks (what my insurance covered). Now I keep going.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Today would have been my late husband's 80th b.d. I recorded his illness and last days on this blog. He died from mixed dementia (Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer's) in our Plant City home on June 23, 2014. He was told the news that he had this disease with the doctor's simple,

Mr. Johnson, you have dementia.

No other instructions. Nada. So I, his wife and caregiver, had to come up with a plan. On retrospect, I wish he had been told these instructions.

Mr. Johnson, live life for each day.

Organize your finances.

You don't need to work forever. Plan to retire.

Your mind will play tricks on you and you need to trust your wife to be your helpmate and help you to decide each day. She will give you a schedule so you know what is happening.

Stop using guns and equipment that might not be safe for you or others. Eventually you will not be safe to drive.

You will eventually need help recognizing your surroundings because you do not feel at home. You want to "go home". But accept your wife and other caregivers judgments.

This life is not all. You as a Christian have heaven to look forward to. Your wife and others will be there for you.

Monday, September 25, 2017

September 9th I walked in the Huntsville, Alabama Alzheimer's Association walk and appreciate the friends who contributed to this walk. Note that I made a skirt from previous walks.

Since this blog has a Facebook "Like" page, I decided to boost the picture and also to use it as the header for that like page. I received so many likes on that page--236 to date. I reached 2,328 people before I stopped running the ad. Good decision to make a skirt out of previous walk T-shirts and glad I ran the ad. Now to pay for it! There was to be another walk in Decatur, Alabama about 45 minutes away on September 23. I volunteered to help there also.

Dianne Pierson leading the Decatur program

Me helping in the Decatur booth

Paisley's master died, but the son carries on the tradition of walking. Dogs grieve too as did my dog after my husband died from Mixed Dementia.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Highlights of the 2016 year include putting two new raps on YouTube ("While You're Still One" and "Rocket City Ditty"); finishing the dissertation "Finishing Strong With Dementia Caregiving", except I have to defend it; and walking again after breaking both feet in August.

Cast and boot in August

So what are my new goals that

you all can hold me accountable for?

Technology

Get a Fire Tablet or borrow an iPad for the Skype defense of my dissertation

Learn self-checkout at Wal-Mart

Health

My weight is on a plateau, but I do go to Weight Watchers so I didn't gain back the 40 pounds I have lost. Lose 10 to 15 pounds to add to weight I have kept off.

Friday, September 30, 2016

You can see Huntsville in the window. September 23 I waited for the doctor to enter, hoping he would say,

Carol, you can take the right boot off and drive!

Instead when Dr. Franklin entered, he said the X-rays were great and

You may take both boots off!

I was thrilled! I had to wait a few days for the pain opiate to get out of my system to drive, and I switched to Tylenol Eight Hour for pain. I used my families' bins to pack up my car. My brother drove behind me and unloaded the car since I use a walker now.

I had seen dog Ziggy twice since the accident. Once Sandra (who graciously kept him over 45 days) brought him to the nursing home, and another time I saw him in a doggie park.

After several days getting settled--things like figuring out how to take a shower safely, getting the handicapped permit for my car, getting groceries, starting vigorous physical therapy at home to unfreeze and mobilize my feet, I missed Ziggy.

I called Sandra and invited her to bring Ziggy back and have dinner with me. Now I cheated! I bought dinner in because I don't stand to cook too much yet. Sandra is such a great new friend from my new church here. Imagine doing that for someone--keeping their dog! Apparently Ziggy was fun for them and they had recently lost a dog.

Ziggy and I love being together. He wants to walk farther than I am capable of walking, and he needs to adjust to short trips.

Today a Facebook friend suggested I just take him to a doggy park. Will do. I can sit and he can roam!

Monday, September 5, 2016

Never had to put my late husband who had mixed dementia in a nursing home. Had the privilege of having him in our Plant City home all his days. However two years later I have recently had the nursing home experience--not in Plant City, Florida, but in Huntsville, Alabama where I moved a year after he died.

Prayer. Breaking both ankles will send you to ER and then in my case to Huntsville Health and Rehab right across the Parkway from my apartment. The LORD has such a sense of humor 'cause this is the very facility that my Huntsville church has a prayer meeting in! So now I have been to prayer meetings there and expanded my prayer opportunity for my church and for the residents and staff I have met.

Residents. I have been able to identify dementia patients there. The first night I sat in someone's spot in the dining room. She said, I have sat here all my life! Of course she hadn't, but I got up and moved. No use arguing with a dementia patient!

I met lonely residents, parked here with little interaction and no visitors. When I can walk and drive (when my two legs are healed), I will come back to visit them. These three weeks have changed me.

Nursing Staff. My mother was a nurse. She advised, Carol, become a teacher. I see why after living in this nursing home. The tasks and responsibilities are endless. Maybe thankless. The staff is expected to counteract the realities of old age and disability. Teaching is easier, but just maybe nursing is more rewarding than teaching. They were great, and when I complained they heard me. The administrator even gave me her personal cell number and let a new friend give me a new hairdo in the home beauty salon!

Therapists. I had Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists. I thought I would have time to polish my dissertation and read--not so. Therapists would find me and the sessions would begin. I was very glad I had been using the gym at my apartment house because it gave me a "leg up" (pun intended). Sessions included hopping on the better leg for use with a walker. I was happy about my upper arm muscles being toned because of my old lady wings. Occupational therapists prepared me for when I would leave the facility and would have to dress and cook.

Now the speech therapist sessions were optional for me, but I elected to take the training. I had haunting thoughts about my own memory from all I have been studying. It turns out the memory enhancing skills I learned help with normal aging and some studies (such as The Nun Study) suggest that mentally, socially and physically active seniors are less likely to get Alzheimer's. The cognitive therapy that I was given is very interesting and useful to me.

I am now staying with my family and having home health care several days a week after Labor Day. They put in this railing so I can get in the house from their garage and have been most hospitable; the nursing home physical therapists trained me how to walk up steps with the aid of my brother and a gait belt. You put your best foot up first on the way up; on the way down you put your worst foot down first.

But there are a group of residents that are my new friends. I had many visitors in my 19 days in this nursing home, and I can never repay them, not to mention Sandra and Richard who are taking care of dog Ziggy. I am going to "pay it forward" by visiting my new friends.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Wednesday night, Aug. 10, I took my dog on a long walk. On the way home I fell in the street. It was dark and as best I can tell I started slipping into a drain. I fell on my rear and the top of the concrete would not give way. My feet crunched! I yelled for help in the street and people came. I called for my neighbor on my cell phone to come get my dog while an ambulance came to get me. The pain was excruciating and I rapped while on the way to the hospital to effectively block my mind from the pain.

Thursday morning I had surgery. I asked for anesthesia that doesn't promote Alzheimer's since I know about that--don't think I have AD however. In surgery I had a cast put on my left foot for a tib/bit fracture and other metal pinnings and a boot put on my right foot for a simple break at the button of my feet. Gradually I am hopping on the right foot to use the port-a-potty in the hospital but it is not easy.

Left foot cast; right foot only to hop on with the boot

Monday morning I was transferred to a rehab place not far from where I live. My brother drove me with my own car which was the right height for my late husband and now for me to get into and out of. Sandra from my church had taken my dog for a month on that Thursday or maybe longer.

Ziggy had obvious help from Sandra to write:

"Hi mommy I slept well last night. I got a bath today I wanted you to see how pretty I am. I was a good boy when I got my bath and it really felt good. I ran and I ran and I ran and played ball after my bath. I made everybody laugh! I hope you're feeling better. I love you, Ziggy"

I have had to cancel substitute teaching which I will miss until I can literally get back on my feet. I rap at the end of good classes and have gotten quite a reputation as a rapper here in Huntsville--MC AC The Rap Lady on YouTube. The man who took my blood in the middle of the night in the hospital is a bus driver during the day and the high schoolers all talk about me on the bus he says.

Now the staff here at the rehabilitation place are learning about my rapping. The first day was VERY hard for me, but I am adjusting. Thanks for your prayers, folks.